Flame out for Chicago in bidding for 2016 Olympics

Rio de Janeiro captures sporting prize

By Kathy Bergen and Philip Hersh - Tribune reporters

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COPENHAGEN — It was the kind of stinging defeat Chicago sports fans know all too well.Mayor Richard Daley took one grand shot at landing the Olympics, devoting more than three years to an effort that involved thousands of volunteers and more than $72 million in donations, but in the end Chicago was done in by a combination of Rio de Janeiro’s more compelling story line and the quirky politics of Olympic voting. 

Despite an appearance by President Barack Obama at the final presentations Friday, Chicago’s candidacy landed with a thud. The city was ousted in the first round of voting for the 2016 Games, rejected before the mayor’s car could even arrive back at the convention center to witness the drama of the International Olympic Committee vote. He had the car turned around and headed straight to a suddenly deflated Chicago backers’ party.

Back in Chicago, the celebration also ended practically as quickly as it began. Would-be revelers arrived at Daley Center and other locations expecting a tense morning culminating in a victory announcement just before noon locally. Instead, Chicago was out of the running by about 10:15 a.m.

Chicago’s main pitch was to put on games along the spectacular backdrop of Lake Michigan. That turned out to be no match for Rio, not because the beach at Ipanema outshines Oak Street, but because of a more powerful geographic symbolism. Time and time again in this intense contest, Rio de Janeiro hammered away at the fact that an organization devoted to international understanding through sport had never deigned to give the games to South America.

Rio’s argument won the day, and the games, over Madrid in the third and final round of voting, 66-32. Chicago got the least votes in round one and was eliminated, followed out the door by Tokyo in round two.

“I wouldn’t say it was a negative vote (against Chicago) as much as it was a positive vote for Brazil and the idea of having games in the southern hemisphere,” said Richard Carrion, an International Olympic Committee member from Puerto Rico. “I analyze it more that Brazil had a better idea.”

For Chicago, this is the end of the road for this particular pursuit, at least in the short term. Daley ruled out a bid for 2020, saying it was highly unlikely the IOC would return to the Americas so quickly.

About three hours after Chicago was eliminated, Daley made his first public statement, saying he was disappointed, “but you go on with your life.”

IOC politics appeared to play a major role in explaining how Chicago, which many saw as the favorite, was eliminated so quickly. The first round of voting is always the most unpredictable, with regional allies often promising to back friends, or conspiring to gang up on a specific challenger.

In this case, friends of Rio may have formed alliances to quickly eliminate Chicago, its most significant threat, said Richard Pound, an IOC member from Canada.

“That’s sport politics, not anything else,” he said, adding that the Europeans and the Asians are much better at this maneuvering than are North Americans. “We kind of think if you’ve got the best bid, the world will recognize that, and these decisions are made solely on the merits of the bid. Well, not solely.”

Another factor in Chicago’s vote failure appeared to be the sometimes fractious relationship between the United States Olympic Committee and the IOC. The two sides have sparred over issues such as TV contract revenue, potentially alienating some IOC members.

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Daley disappointed, 2020 bid not likely

By Kathy Bergen

About three hours after Chicago was eliminated from hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, Mayor Richard Daley made his first public statement, saying he was disappointed and that a 2020 bid for Chicago may not be in the offing.

“I’m disappointed but you go on with your life.”  Daley said, adding that Chicago may not be getting in the bidding for the 2020 Games. ”It’s already in this hemisphere, with Rio, and it would not make sense for an American city to try again in 2020. It’s in this hemisphere and they have to move somewhere else.”

Asked about whether this effects his political future, Daley said: ”Wait, wait, wait. This was never about Rich Daley. It was about Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe. Not me.”

“This was not a political gamble,” said the mayor, who appeared poised and gracious when he did address the media. “This was not a political adventure. It was a commitment on behalf of the city to get the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Daley was not even at the meeting center for the first round of voting. He was en route to the Bella Center, where the IOC meeting was held, when he heard Chicago had been bumped. He had the driver turn the car around and went instead to a supporters party at a Copenhagen nightclub, Axelborg, right near the Tivoli Gardens.

Later, Daley said he wouldn’t do anything differently. On the media, he noted that reporters from other bid cities were unabashed supporters of their bids, unlike the Chicago press.

“I’ve been to Rio and have been interviewed by press there, and every time, their reporters say, ‘Thank you, very much. But we are a much better city.’ I respect that strong emphasis on the press, that they were supporters. It was overwhelming. This is not to criticize you, but they say ours is the best city. They are really behind the city.”

Daley said he had spoken to Obama, who was still on Air Force One. He “personally thanked him on behalf of the United States.”

Daley said he had no prouder moment than listening to Michelle Obama’s speech.

“We’ve come on a long journey, and the city is better for it,” Daley said. He thanked Pat Ryan, the business community and labor community. Asked if he’d shed tears, he first said no before adding, “Sure, you have tears, you’re disappointed. I love my job. Chicago really shined here.”

The mayor also had high praise for Oprah Winfrey.

“Talk about a cheerleader. She was fantastic. She did everything possible,” he said.

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Be proud, Chicago

Tribune Staff Reporter

So that’s all there is.

Chicago in 2016 will watch the Summer Olympic Games on television along with the most of the world.

Chicago lost. We don’t like losing. We don’t like being embarrassed either, which, let’s admit, was the near-universal reaction to being knocked out in the first round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.

But we’ll be fine.

Bidding for an Olympiad forced Chicago, its leaders and its citizens, to focus on what works and what doesn’t. It made all of us think to the future how this city should capitalize on its assets: the lakefront, the neighborhoods, the parks–and sports and kids. This process also energized the concept of public/private partnerships here.

That work won’t go to waste. There will be no Olympic Village on the site of Michael Reese Hospital. But the city owns that land now and Mayor Richard Daley has promised to develop it into a new neighborhood anyway. Do that, Chicago–and preserve Reese’s landmark Walter Gropius buildings.

A Chicago Olympics would have spotlighted the city’s single greatest physical asset–that glorious lakefront. It was to be the centerpiece of the games. It’s still the centerpiece of Chicago. Take it to the next level, Chicago. Complete the public access where it doesn’t exist. Build the pedestrian walkways that would have anchored the village to the lake. The lakefront is the city’s crown jewel. Polish it. ƒp This bid turned a spotlight on the city’s transportation infrastructure, a weak point. The region’s rails and roads need capital investment to handle the demands of a growing metropolis. Invest the money, Chicago, Olympics or no.

That includes finishing the unfinished part of the O’Hare International Airport expansion: Build a western access road; just about every local transportation study for decades has listed that as a priority to ease the bottleneck at the eastern entrance to the airport. Fixing transportation also includes easing Chicago’s freight rail gridlock. And it includes making the city’s rapid transit system work better and more efficiently.

The greatest legacy of this bid could have been as simple and profound as this: kids and sports. An Olympiad held the potential to nudge them off the couch, away from junk food, TV and video games, the gangs and their violence. Chicago founded World Sport Chicago to boost the bid, but it can and should be a powerful force in the years ahead to promote active, healthy lifestyles.

Chicago is an attractive destination for talented, educated young people. Its location makes it a hub, as accessible to Mexico City and Mumbai as to Milwaukee. But Chicago won’t reach its potential unless it fosters a climate more conducive to business investment and entrepreneurial development. A new scheme for taxing and public spending would greatly help protect Chicago from an erosion of employers. Jobs, jobs and more jobs will be the city’s salvation.

Businesses that locate and grow here pay taxes and all those newly employed people pay taxes, too.

Olympiad or no, Chicago needs to become a perpetual mecca for small businesses in particular. Their energetic potential is explosive. Make it so easy and welcoming, Chicago, for them to start up here that they can’t imagine going elsewhere. This means shifting a mind set that currently sees them as a source of fees, fines and other revenues, only secondly of growth and opportunity.

This city has reinvented itself before, without the provocation of an Olympiad.

Chicago was a “City on the brink” in 1981 when the Tribune series with that title looked at this metropolis and its bleak post-industrial prospects. The world was changing; grit and brawn didn’t matter so much anymore. The harsh competition of globalization was dawning; structural decline was palpable in cities ill-equipped for this rigorous economic game. By the mid-’80s, Chicago’s ugly racial politics and its City Council wars made the city a national embarrassment, famously jabbed by The Wall Street Journal as “Beirut on the lake.” All arrows pointed south except the jobless rate. That soared.

Why didn’t Chicago plummet like so many heartland cities in what the Tribune series called “an arc of economic crisis”? Partly because of an innate spirit that created a city out of a swampy onion patch–and then improbably promised to host the world at a glittering gala just 22 years after the Great Fire of 1871. Hence the wildly successful Columbian Exposition.

Partly, too, because of can-do hucksterism: See a problem. Solve a problem. Make a buck.

And partly because of leadership–political, civic, business, cultural. At critical moments, powerful Chicagoans have reached high. Why not? What did they have to lose?

Pinched vision isn’t this city’s civic heritage–from Montgomery Ward’s sacred lakefront park to Daniel H. Burnham’s “Make no little plans” to Mayor Daley’s crowd-pleasing Millennium Park.

Chicagoans love their city but see its warts every day. We know its challenges and its weaknesses. And we can’t forget how this steel and stone metropolis, rising like a castle from the flat expanse of the lake’s broad basin, astonishes newcomers. Its architecture, museums, parks, flowers are always a revelation, as is the richness of its neighborhoods.

Chicago is a world-class city. The Olympics wouldn’t have changed that. But the games would have showcased this city for the world in a way no other event could. Now it’s up to Chicago, its leaders, citizens and businesses to achieve that at a time when competition for jobs, brains, talent and investment is as likely to come from New Delhi as New York.

Some Chicagoans are celebrating today because the XXXI Olympiad won’t disrupt their summer of 2016; many others are disappointed. It would have been a grand party in our own front yard. But it wasn’t to be.

It’s time to get back to what we do best: See a problem. Solve a problem. Make a buck.

Be proud, Chicago. You went for gold.

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Rio de Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics

UPDATE: The International Olympic Committee has named Rio de Janeiro as the host city for the 2016 games.

Chicago has been eliminated in the first round of International Olympic Committee voting, and Tokyo was eliminated in the second round, leaving Rio de Janeiro and Madrid in the running for the 2016 Summer Games as the voting continues. The final announcement of the winner will be made about noon.

U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst and chief executive Stephanie Streeter both declined comment when approached by reporters soon after Chicago was eliminated.

“No comment. We will talk later,” Probst said.

Chicago 2016 sent out an emailed thank-you note to supporters in Chicago and across the world. It included these words: “While we were not fortunate enough to be selected as Host City, Chicago has won in many other ways.”

One Chicago consultant who traveled to Copenhagen with the bid team said the mood in the room ranges from “shock to devastation.”

In Washington, the sense of rejection was palpable. ”It’s disappointing,” said one Capitol Hill aide. “We’re all watching the coverage. Sen. Durbin was fully behind the bid, and it’s disappointing.”

Durbin, the assistant Senate majority leader, was a late entry to the Illinois delegation to Copenhagen and was on board Air Force One with President Obama when the crushing news came.

House Democrat Mike Quigley of Chicago, who won Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s old seat, reacted to the loss by saying: “Chicago was a world-class city before today’s decision, and Chicago will be a world-class city tomorrow. Although disappointment hangs in the air, this is not the time for regret, but rather to see opportunity in the incredible work that was done across Chicago over the past months.

“We now have the chance to move forward, free of the demands of the IOC, but equipped with plans that can address the real problems Chicagoans face on a daily basis. Chicago is now armed with an organizing capability never seen before, and an opportunity to continue the momentum and create better schools, more efficient transportation, and safer streets.”

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CHICAGO ELIMINATED IN FIRST ROUND

– Kathy Bergen and Philip Hersh

Chicago has been eliminated in the first round of International Olympic Committee voting, leaving Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo in the running for the 2016 Summer Games as second-round voting begins.

There were 95 votes in the first round because two members, NHL player Saku Koivu of Finland (currently in preseason training with his new team, the Anaheim Ducks) and Alpha Diallo of Guinea could not make it to Copenhagen.

Others not voting in the first round included the seven members from the countries with candidates (two each from the U.S., Japan and Brazil; one from Spain); Kun Hee Lee of South Korea, who has been suspended pending judicial action involving him in South Korea; and IOC President Jacques Rogge, who does not vote.

As soon as a city is eliminated, members from that country can vote.

Under IOC rules, in case of a tie during a round when only two candidates remain, the IOC president can vote or ask the executive board to break it. There is a runoff in case of a tie between the two lowest vote-getters in an earlier round.

Officials pick out clear plastic balls from a bowl filled with such balls, each with a number, and assign a number to each city for voting purposes. Voting is electronic, a secret ballot. The numbers are No. 8 for Tokyo, No. 9 for Madrid, No. 4 for Chicago and No. 7 for Rio.

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2016 Olympics: Cliffhanger in Copenhagen fills air with electric anticipation

Bid teams are nervous about close vote, and Chicago’s star, Oprah Winfrey, creates a stir wherever she goes

By Kathy Bergen and Philip Hersh Tribune reporters

COPENHAGEN – — Eight-hundred-year-old Copenhagen, a former fishing colony that is now a blend of the fine and the funky, the historic and the sleekly modern, is a city on edge.

And the war of nerves is most evident among an unusual group of visitors: the 2016 Olympic bid teams from Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo, and their supporters, who are sweating out a vote Friday by the International Olympic Committee.

With this being the most evenly matched four-way Olympic bid race in recent memory, even those used to high tension are feeling the strain.

“I’m a little anxious,” Olympian basketball player and former NBA star David Robinson, a Chicago supporter, admitted at a bid backers cocktail party held just as the IOC was officially opening its annual meeting. “A lot of people have put in a ton of time in the last three years and a lot is riding on it for the city.”

Contributing to the war of nerves is the difficulty in predicting an outcome, not just because each candidate city has a strong bid, but because the IOC is notoriously hard to read and the elimination rounds of voting result in quickly shifting alliances as cities are dropped.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero tempered his optimism Thursday morning with recollections of the vote for the 2012 Summer Games, when Madrid was the top vote-getter in the second round of voting in Singapore, only to ultimately wind up third. London squeaked past Paris, the favorite to win those games.

“When that concluded, I took a reflection,” Zapatero said. “The thing is, with this type of election, there are different faces on it as bids are eliminated. It’s very hard to predict who will win the final vote.”

And it is hard to steer clear of the electric undercurrents in town. With sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, police cars have been whisking heads of state around town. Security guards at posh hotels have kept entrances cordoned off when VIPs were expected.

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Former IOC President Samaranch Asks For The 2016 Olympic Games In Madrid At Final Presentation

Madrid made the fourth and final Olympic bid presentation of the day to IOC members in Copenhagen. Following is a summary.

Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. took the podium first and introduced the bid delagation.

Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardin took the stage next.

The Mayor said that this is the second consecutive bid for Madrid. He said that in sport there is never failure, you can never give up. He said he and his team will stay to support the Madrid Olympics for the next seven years.

A video portraying Madrid as multicultural showed people of different nationalities and different cultures living in Madrid.

Mercedes Coghen, CEO of Madrid 2016 spoke next. She spoke about her Olympic experience in Field Hockey.

“We believe in our games with the human touch.”

“Thanks to our location and time zone we offer a global Games.”

A video showed a visualization of the venue plan as described by Coghen and others. The empasis was on the bid’s planned legacy, environmental plans and the compact, efficient transportation plans.

Esperanza Agguirre, President of the Regional Government of Madrid spoke about her governments committment to the Games and emphasized Olympic values and her goal to change the life of citizens of Madrid.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, President of the Spanish Government was next on stage. He spoke of infrastructure that is already built and ready.

“Our candidacy is reliable. It is reliable because it is united politically.”

“We have listened to everything the IOC has suggested.”

“I commit to a project which will allow the spreading of athletics for all young people.”

A video was shown of people “relaying” an envelope from Madrid, across Europe and finally to the Bella Center in Copenhagen resolved into an actual handoff of a letter to the IOC signed by the people of Madrid. It contained a message hope and dreams for the 2016 Olympics.

Alejandro Blanco, President of the Spanish Olympic Committee was next on the podium and he spoke of a games designed by and for the athletes.

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President Lula’s Empassioned Remarks Highlight Rio 2016 Olympic Bid Presentation

Rio de Janeiro presented their 2016 Olympic bid to the IOC third, at 12:05 PM local time in Copenhagen. A summary follows.

IOC member from Brazil Joao Havelange took the stage first. He shared memories of past Games that he participated in.

“I dream of history being made in 2016, the first Games in South America”

Havelange asked IOC members to help celebrate his 100th birthday at the Rio 2016 Games.

President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee Carlos Nuzman took the podium next. He described his past and experience in the Olympic movement. He said he dreams of seeing the whole world in Rio.

“Our economy is dynamic and strong and ready to host the Games” he said.

“Yes, Brazil is ready, Rio is ready. Ready to host the Games of certainty…”

“We are members of the same team that delivered the 2007 Pan American and Parapan-American Games”

Nuzman then showed his now-famous map of Olympic Games spread throughout the world with the exception of Africa and South America. He made a plea to send the Games to South America for the first time.

A video was presented showing various athletic and cultural events happening in typical Rio style. Images of the 2007 Pan Am Games were added.

Sergio Cabral, Governor of the State of Rio de Janiero took the stage and reminded IOC members that Rio was voted happiest city in the world by Forbes Magazine.

Cabral outlined financial plans and goals for the 2016 Games. He said they were ready to start immediately. Transportation improvements are to be completed prior the start of the 2014 World Cup.

With respect to security concerns Cabral said “changes are happening, and happening as the result of sport”.

He said policing changes were made as a result of hosting the 2007 Pan Am Games.

He concluded “our people are ready”.

Henrique Meirelles, President of the Central Bank of Brazil took the stage and outlined the economic situtation in Brazil including investments and employment. He reviewed the validity of of Rio 2016′s finacial plan.

Meirelles said Brazil has the 10th largest economy of the world and will soon be 5th.

Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janiero said that the World Cup in 2014 would be used as a springboard for a magnificent Olympic Games in 2016.

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Obama lobbies IOC to pick Chicago for 2016

President, first lady make presentations to IOC on Friday

COPENHAGEN – In a hometown pitch for the world’s biggest sporting event, President Barack Obama lobbied Olympic leaders to give the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago, saying the U.S. “is ready and eager to assume that sacred trust.”

The president and his wife, fellow Chicagoan Michelle Obama, put their capital behind an enormous campaign to win the Olympics bid. Never before had a U.S. president made such an in-person appeal.

“I urge you to choose Chicago,” Obama told members of the International Olympic Committee.

Story continues below ↓

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“And if you do — if we walk this path together — then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud,” the president said.

Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo have been making their cases to the IOC for more than a year, but many IOC members were believed to be undecided about which city they would vote for Friday. Some said they might not decide until after the cities made their final presentations in Copenhagen.

Both Obamas spoke on deeply personal terms about Chicago, the city at the center of the world’s spotlight so many times, including in November when Barack Obama won the White House and stood proudly with his family.

The president described Chicago as a place of diversity and warmth.

“Chicago is a place where we strive to celebrate what makes us different just as we celebrate what we have in common,” he said. “It’s a place where our unity is on colorful display … It’s a city that works from its first World’s Fair more than a century ago to the World Cup we hosted in the nineties, we know how to put on big events.”

For all the anticipation surrounding Obama’s appearance in Copenhagen, his arrival at the IOC meeting was decidedly subdued.

The 100-plus committee members, who had already been warned not show bias during the presentations, sat silently as the Obamas walked into the Bella Center with the rest of 12-member Chicago delegation.

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Decision day at last

BY LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporter

COPENHAGEN — That finish line is coming up fast.

Today’s the day Chicago learns whether it takes home Olympic gold … or sits as an also-ran in the race to host the 2016 Summer Games.

Uniforms pressed? Check. Oprah in town? Check. President Obama? Check.

It will all come to a head at 11:57 a.m., Chicago time, when the city that has won the right to host the 2016 Olympics will be announced in a dramatic ceremony.

Mayor Daley’s Olympic bid team — and competitors from Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo — spent the day before the final vote furiously lobbying the International Olympic Committee members on the eve of their vote for the 2016 Games.

The star power remained high — even before President Obama got on a plane Thursday night en route to Copenhagen.

Want a picture with Oprah? She was holding court in a restaurant. Interested in talking to a Dream Teamer or a Perfect 10? David Robinson and Nadia Comaneci roamed the halls of their Copenhagen hotel. How about a meeting with the first lady? She was listening.

Michelle Obama has been on a marathon campaign to lobby as many of the 100-plus members of the IOC as possible. Thursday, she took a break from her hotel suite meetings with IOC members to attend the opening ceremony at Copenhagen’s dazzling opera house. Wearing a sleeveless, apricot-colored dress, she greeted a steady stream of members and other VIPs.

She also took time to have lunch with the queen of Denmark.

Since her arrival Wednesday, Mrs. Obama has been meeting with the IOC voters — perhaps dozens — in a suite at the Marriott, the official IOC hotel, where she can sit and talk.

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